^Hurley-Schubert. "Middlesex County cartoonist's pets inspire comic strip". Home News Tribune. July 21, 2003. Accessed June 21, 2011. "McDonnell a 1974 Edison High School graduate started his career as a magazine illustrator. He always drew a little dog somewhere in the background."
^Conte, Annemarie. "His Name is Earl". New Jersey Monthly. February 6, 2008. Accessed June 21, 2011. "After graduating from New York's School of Visual Arts in the early 1980s, McDonnell moved to Hoboken, where there was a community of underground cartoonists."